Prologues and Epilogues of Restoration Theater

Gender and Comedy, Performance and Print

Diana Solomon

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Women finally began acting in 1660, well over a century after public playhouses first drew crowds in England. The appearance of the actress has riveted the scholarly gaze, but until now there has been little attention given to a crucial subject: her dramatic prologues and epilogues. Accompanying over ninety per cent of all performed and printed plays between 1660 and 1714, these customized comic verses that promoted the play evolved into essential theatrical elements, and they both contributed to and reflected a performer’s success. Once dismissed by scholars as formulaic, prologues and epilogues should be included in scholars’ analyses of Restoration and eighteenth-century plays in order for us to understand how Restoration audiences consumed plays. This project unites the Restoration actress and the dramatic prologue and epilogue in the first book-length study on the subject. Methodologically, it contributes to Restoration scholarship by bringing the critical lenses of performance and print culture theory to Restoration theater. Because this study considers Restoration plays as both performances and publications, it treats plays as their original audiences perceived them, and thus expands our understanding of texts as performative and of performance as textual.

Diana Solomon is assistant professor of English at Simon Fraser University.

Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction What can prologues and epilogues tell us about Restoration theater? Prologues and epilogues as paratextsGender as a defining elementComic Performance Audience Taste and Influence Betweenness, the actress, and the epilogue Agency: Actor, Author, Audience In print: Broadsides, Quartos, Compilations, Pictures Chapter overview

Chapter 3: Female Exposed Paratexts, Part two: Solidarity and Social CritiqueFemale Solidarity: Sarah Cooke and Rochester’s Valentinian; Dryden’s The Princess of Cleve Social Critique: Critiques of Love and Marriage: Charlotte Butler and Behn’s The City-Heiress; Mocking Male Sexuality: Mrs Knepp and Wycherley’s The Country Wife; Male Mistreatment of Women: The Constant Nymph

PART II: The Impact of ParatextsChapter 4: Vestal Interests: Anne Bracegirdle’s ParatextsCredibility of the virgin actress: Satires on Bracegirdle Bracegirdle’s self-constructed virginityRaped heroines: The virtuous non-virgins Rape roles with prologues or epilogues Nonvirgin roles The height of fame: Bracegirdle’s prologue to Congreve’s Love for Love Chapter 5: Bawdy Language: The Reception History of Addison’s Epilogue to The Distrest Mother The bawdy epilogue: why all the fuss? The Epilogue in question: Addison’s contribution to Philips’s The Distrest Mother How to watch epilogues: The Spectator weighs in Pamela as Theater Critic Conclusion Appendix: Female Prologues and Epilogues by type Bibliography Index

Although prologues and epilogues are a large part of Restoration drama they have rarely been studied in depth. This work by Solomon begins to rectify that lack by considering how these types of paratexts support—or undermine—gender norms when an actor speaks the words. Solomon begins by defining types of prologues and epilogues and then she explores those types in detail. She also offers several case studies, one of Anne Bracegirdle (a famous and famously virginal actress) and the other of an epilogue as famous as its play, which serves as an example of the period's conflict between tragic plays and comic, often bawdy, epilogues. The author argues that the body and persona of the actress worked as a prop or metatext, so that Nell Gwyn's well-known affair with Charles II supported the shift from tragic denouement to comic epilogue, and Anne Bracegirdle's customary virginity allowed her to speak directly, even radically, to her female audiences. Although sometimes overly reliant on comparisons to modern female stand-up, Solomon's work is nonetheless thoughtful and very well supported, offering a new way of understanding particular Restoration plays and the wider theatrical world of the period. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.— CHOICE